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antidolos · 4 years ago

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ICO IEO Rating and Review

We are going to explain the concept of "ICO". Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a way to raise capital and investment opportunities. The tokens (the same digital currencies) of a project are sold before launching the project, and people can buy tokens before the project starts. In ICO's case, tokens from a blockchain-based project will be used in the future, which theoretically increases its value if the project is successful.

Participants invest in the project using other digital currencies (often Bitcoin or Ethereum) or common currencies (dollars or euros) and receive tokens for their money. It may be interesting for those who have been active in the stock markets that the ICO has many similarities to the IPO (An Initial Public Offering).

An example to understand ICO's concept

To better understand the ICO's concept, see the following example in the "ICO IEO Rating and Review" article. The names are entirely hypothetical.

A software engineer named Mr. X comes up with an exciting idea to implement using decentralized blockchain technology. Suppose his vision is to build a decentralized platform for advertising. He calls his platform tokens "Xcoin", with which advertisers can pay their advertisers. So Xcoin is a functional token that if the platform users increase, the token price will also increase.

Mr. X assembles his team to implement his idea as soon as possible. But there was an easily visible problem. To develop the project, they need a budget and capital. Mr. X has several ways to raise capital. It can contract with a real investor or get the capital it needs by convincing a local accelerator company. But now that Mr. X's project defines a blockchain and token, why not use an ICO and get help from the general public worldwide to raise capital?

But another problem. How to make and sell tokens when the project is not ready yet? Blockchains like Ethereum, which supports smart contracts, come to his aid. Using the Ethereum platform and smart contracts, he quickly builds up some tokens and sets up a white paper with his team, and places it on the ICO‌ site, along with a series of additional project and team descriptions. But what were white papers? The white paper is a term that has been used in recent years for the crypto project description. Join us in the article "ICO IEO Rating and Review" to explain more about these.

Many investors read about his project and invest in it and get tokens for their money. Now, with the funds raised, Mr. X is implementing his idea and building his Blockchain. Ethereum tokens are then transferred to the leading network, the new Blockchain, through a technical process. The project succeeds, the value of Xcoin tokens is multiplied, and the investors who invested in it enjoy a few hundred percent profits. However, it was a dream come true for a few investors. In the other case, which happens more often, Mr. X, after attracting capital, abandons his project and idea and starts his luxurious life with investors' money.

A brief history of ICOs

Regarding the first project done under the ICO platform, it should be said that this project was done in July 2013. Ethereum also raised capital in 2014 in the same way, and today this cryptocurrency is one of the most important currencies in the world. In 2017, this type of fundraising became so popular that since the ICO became famous in 2017, about 800 ICOs have been offered, raising more than $ 20 billion. Throughout the history of this type of fundraising, many companies have tried to raise capital in this way. Still, among them, we can mention some examples of the most successful in history. Filecoin [Futures], for example, ranks first with more than $ 25.7 billion. Tezos is in second place with about $ 23.2 million. Also, SIRIN LABS Token with $ 157885825 was able to take third place. The Antidolos Media thanks you for joining us in this. This media also invites you to read more about "ICO IEO Rating and Review".

Severe scams in ICOs

The idea of fraud

What is an initial coin offering (ICO)? The truth is that although ICOs are an exciting idea and can be very profitable, unfortunately, in most cases, they are scams, or the ambitious views of their developers do not work. As a result, the projects have been left without any response from companies. In the article we wrote about "ICO IEO Rating and Review", we will give you useful information about these scams.

Risk of being scammed

In 2017, many investors suffered huge losses in their dream of becoming rich overnight by investing in ICOs that claimed to solve all the world's problems. Since there are no specific rules on ICOs in most countries of the world, and since the ICO is an entirely online process and does not require a face-to-face visit, the Ethereum team's method to raise capital is now a swift idea. It turned out to be a scam. Scammers can easily trap uninformed investors by writing ambitious articles about a dream idea and designing a booming website.

Why aren't scammers arrested?

Since the investment amount is received in the form of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, due to digital currency transactions' semi-anonymity, it is challenging to track them, and one should not expect to return them almost after sending the money. According to the latest research, about 90% of all ICOs introduced in 2017 were either fraudulent or abandoned after no results.

These days, because of the risks that ICOs can pose to investors, other methods have been devised to replace them, given the distrust of this type of crowdfunding. In the article "ICO IEO Rating and Review", we will discuss these alternatives. One of these methods is IEO.

Alternative methods of ICO

More than a dozen alternative methods have been introduced for ICOs. But currently, only two or three of them can be done on a large scale. Two of the leading alternative methods that are widely used these days are IEO and STO. In this part of the article "ICO IEO Rating and Review", we will address these two positions.

Initial Exchange Offering (IEO)

Initial Exchange Offering, or IEO for short, is similar to ICO. The difference is that in an extensive exchange, digital currency is offered, and investors go to the exchange to buy tokens. Exchange offices introduce more reputable items to their customers due to their expertise in this field. Of course, the scam is not closed yet. So, there are unreliable exchanges that have set a trap for their customers. In the following, "ICO IEO Rating and Review " will be more familiar with this concept.

Unlike the initial coin offering, which is held directly by a project team, IEO is not. An exchange on behalf of a startup manages Initial Exchange Offering, or IEO, to raise the business's capital for selling the token. Many digital currency exchanges have started accepting IEOs led by Binance Exchange.

Because large cryptocurrency exchanges conduct the necessary checks before pre-selling tokens, the risk of fraud in this method is significantly reduced. The reason behind that is there is an extensive exchange between the investor and the development team. However, as mentioned, not all exchange offices are valid, and exchange offices may also make mistakes.

Since this article's topic is ICO IEO Rating and Review, you should pay special attention to this position. The reason for the importance of IEOs is apparent. The reason is that most of the transactions in the field of cryptocurrencies are done in this context. Therefore, if you are active in the cryptocurrency market, you must be thoroughly familiar with this concept

Security Token Offering (STO)

Security Token Offering, or STO for short, is another method of raising capital in digital currencies that is very similar to the ICO. But with features that reduce investor risk, it is likely to replace the old methods soon. Follow the article " ICO IEO Rating and Review " to get more accurate information about this concept.

Put, in this method of collecting, tokens must be registered as securities that require legal procedures. Given that the law guarantees the validity of securities ownership, in the STO, investors will have a traditional and formal role in advancing the project in proportion to their investment. The developers and project team are also legally authenticated. In this process, the investment risk is significantly reduced, and the developers' commitment will be significantly more credible. But, the problem with this approach is that the mission that Blockchain sought will not come true. Because the basis of Blockchain was that in transactions, individuals could trade anonymously.

IEO

Since this article's title is "ICO IEO Rating and Review", in this section, we intend to talk about IEOs. A significant part of this article will explain. After that, by providing information on how to review and rate projects by Antidolos Media, you will be provided with essential explanations, so do not miss this article and stay with us.

These days, we are witnessing the holding of token pre-sales by big exchanges such as Binance. Holding ICOs and token pre-sales on large exchanges has many advantages for investors, and of course, we can not ignore the disadvantages of ICOs. In this part of " ICO IEO Rating and Review " article, we will review essential points about IEOs.

As the name implies, an Initial Exchange Offering means offering tokens based on digital currency exchange. Unlike an initial coin offering (ICO) held directly by a project team, an initial exchange offering is managed by an exchange on behalf of a startup to raise capital in the business to sell the tokens.

What motivates exchange offices to hold IEOs?

Because the process of selling tokens takes place on the platform of exchange, token issuers must pay a listing fee, plus a percentage of their token sales to that exchange. Instead, the tokens sold are listed in the exchange immediately after the end of the IEO. Since a portion of these tokens' sales goes to the exchange, it will have enough motivation to cooperate in marketing and advertising activities. People who participate in an initial exchange offering of the exchange do not send their funds directly to the startup address but instead, open an account in the organizing exchange and buy tokens through the currencies they have in their exchange wallet. Keep in mind that an exchange's initial exchange offering significantly alleviates concerns that projects may be fraudulent. In the continuation of "ICO IEO Rating and Review", we will deal with this subject more precisely.

Exchanges that have an IEO platform

Many digital currency exchanges have started accepting IEOs, which, as mentioned before, are led by Binance Exchange. Binance Exchange has launched an initial exchange offering platform called Binance. In this part of the article written about "ICO IEO Rating and Review", we want to take a look at these exchanges.

In January 2019, the BitTorrent project acquired by Thorne raised $ 7.2 million in less than 15 minutes by selling its tokens on the Binance Launchpad, reaching its maximum capital. Selling tokens in less than 15 minutes for a startup is like a dream. The second IEO held on the platform was a project called Fetch, which reached its maximum capital of $ 6 million in 22 seconds.

Following the rise of Binance Launcher, other large exchanges have developed their own platforms. For example, Bitmax Exchange has set the Bitmax Launchpad platform. OKEx Exchange has expanded its platform. KuCoin Exchange has developed the KuCoin Spotlight platform, and Huobi Exchange has developed the Huobi Prime platform. The image below shows some of the IEO platforms.

What are the main differences between ICO and IEO?

So far, in the article "ICO IEO Rating and Review" we talked about the whole IEO and ICO. In this section, we intend to address the differences between the two concepts.

The ICO and IEO are fundamentally different in terms of various platforms. These platforms include Collectivisation platforms, smart contract management, know your customer requirements (KYC: know your customer) and anti-money laundering (AML), marketing requirements, startup qualifications, and listing time. In the continuation of the "ICO IEO Rating and Review" article, we will point out these differences.

Collective platform

In the initial coin offering (ICO), the collection occurs through the startup's official website and the token issuer. Still, in an initial exchange offering (IEO), the collection takes place on the exchange platform.

Execution of crowdfunding operations and smart contract management

In an initial exchange offering of coins, the project developers are responsible for this. Still, in an exchange's initial exchange offering, these tasks are the exchange's responsibility because the exchange is responsible for paying tokens to its customers.

Customer identification and anti-money laundering policies

The need for customer identification and anti-money laundering policies in the initial coin offering varies greatly depending on the project type. In other words, in some projects, participants may need to provide identification and records to participate in the ICO. Such documents may not be required in other projects, but in an initial exchange offering, exchange offices adopt such policies to open their accounts. , Participation in the project requires the submission of documents.

Marketing budget

The cost of marketing and advertising in an initial exchange offering of coins is entirely the development team's responsibility, and they are required to pay hefty prices to succeed. Still, in an initial exchange offering of tokens, the marketing of tokens is the exchange itself's responsibility.

Startup Qualification (Scam Reduction Risk)

There are no restrictions on an initial exchange offering of a coin, and anyone can hold an ICO. Still, at the IEO, the exchange office first reviews the project and, after qualifying, issues a crowdfunding license on its platform.

Listing in an exchange

In an initial exchange offering of a coin, the listing of tokens does not occur after the end of the public offering. Still, in the exchange's initial exchange offering, the token issued in the exchange office is listed after the end of the public offering.

Benefits of the initial exchange offering

In this part of ICO IEO Rating and Review 's article, the Antidolos media intends to talk about IEO's benefits. In this section, join us to explain the disadvantages of this style of offering cryptocurrencies in the next section.

Trust and reduce fraud risk

One of the benefits of IEO is trust. Since the fundraising is done on a cryptocurrency exchange platform, this exchange carefully examines any project that intends to raise capital through its platform. Therefore, not every project can attract capital in this way. As a result, it must have several quality indicators. In other words, it must pass some standards. Exchanges carefully check everything to maintain their credibility and name. These stages put investors who want to participate in crowdfunding several steps further and gives them more confidence. The initial public offering of the exchange can eliminate fraudulent and suspicious projects.

Consider, for example, the initial public offering of the Raid project. Just hours before the initial sale, Bittrex announced that it would not cooperate with the project and canceled the IEO. The reason for this was the termination of the cooperation between the Raid project and the online game data analysis company OP.GG. According to Bittrex, this cooperation played a vital role in the success of the project. When the exchange office became aware of this issue, it decided to cancel the tokens' sale because it believed that the exchange users would be dissatisfied with this news. For this reason, in ICO IEO Rating and Review 's article, we argued that trust and reduced fraud risk are among the benefits of IEO.

Security

The issue of security in the process of selling tokens is crucial. It has happened many times that due to the sales website's hacking and the manipulation of the address related to the project wallet or any other reason, the money was sent to another address by mistake. Unfortunately, participants have not received any tokens since then. There is no need to worry about security in the initial public offering. The exchange tries to manage the smart contract, which is related to the sale of tokens. Besides, customer identification (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) processes are performed by exchanges. These considerations are because most cryptocurrency service providers have such policies to create an account on their platform.

Ease

Start-ups that plan to issue tokens to raise capital will benefit from such a flawless and secure IEO start-up process over holding ICOs. Although they have to pay a percentage of their token sales along with some commission fees to hold an IEO, they are instead given the costly and challenging ICO marketing process. Therefore, the budget required for the exchange's initial public offering is much less than the ICO. In addition, projects can use the exchanges 'fixed customer base to attract investors' attention to themselves.

Token listing

Since listing on an exchange is one of the first transactions in an exchange, start-up tokens are usually listed on the exchange after start-up.

Disadvantages of the initial exchange offering

As we promised you in the previous section of this article, in this section, we want to address the disadvantages of IEOs. Thank you for being with us so far in "ICO IEO Rating and Review" article.

Listing costs

The first weakness that we will mention in the article " ICO IEO Rating and Review " about initial exchange offering is undoubtedly the listing cost. However, an initial exchange offering is a safer and more efficient alternative to ICO. But the costs of selling tokens and exchange fees for startups can be high. The cost of listing in exchange is about 20 bitcoins, while exchange offices usually charge 10% of the token sale amount.

Limitations

The initial exchange offering process may be limited to one exchange. This can be frustrating for investors who do not have an account exchange office, especially in countries where account creation is prohibited. Creating an account also involves the user process and account verification, and both are time-consuming.

Focus

There is a fundamental problem with initial exchange offerings because it restricts participants. That is that most coins are in the hands of a limited number, which may later lead to price manipulation.

Expropriation

In a centralized exchange, you do not own your private keys, and most exchanges transfer assets within their preferred platform (if not all exchanges, most are). This is the case with the initial public offering of tokens, as the investor is not the tokens' real owner.

Increased artificial demand

Most exchanges force users to participate in IEO only with digital exchange currency (such as BNB). This will increase the demand for digital currency exchange and increase its price sharply. This was one of the main reasons for the sharp rise in the price of Binance Quinn.

Antidolos Media thanks you for joining us in ICO IEO Rating and Review's article.

Rating and review of crypto projects

As we explained in the previous sections of this article, we wrote about "ICO IEO Rating and Review" in this section of the article about review and rating. Cryptocurrency review means that a reputable media operating in the field of cryptocurrencies, such as Antidolos, reviews projects. Examining projects can have different dimensions. Definitely reviewing various projects by trusted media users can be an outstanding event for investors. In this way, investors can use the experience of more skilled people in this field. Some of these reviews could lead to the disclosure of fraudulent projects. Of course, this does not mean that the review of projects is supposed to be just a scam of projects. Instead, various dimensions, such as investment risk, return probability, and the practicality of the business idea will be discussed. Also, by comparing the advantages and disadvantages of different cryptocurrencies, they can be called a score.

These scores can make some projects more important to us. For example, suppose a reputable media outlet, such as Antidolos, determines that Project X will be more profitable. At the same time, the risk of investing in that project is much lower than in another project. In that case, Project X has a higher score. Will take. This score is given to projects by reputable media and can be an excellent guide for users to invest.

Antidolos media has done its job well. In the next section, not only will you become more familiar with Antidolos media, but we will also tell you more about the advantages of this media over other media. So do not miss the final part of the article "ICO IEO Rating and Review".

Antidolos Media

Antidolos Media is one of the most reputable media today that has become a reference in cryptocurrencies. This media has always maintained its mission as media. For example, unlike some media outlets that work in this field, there will be no mercy to projects in exchange for purchasing a premium account to score them. This is exactly what makes Antidolos a reliable medium for both project owners and users who want to invest in cryptocurrencies.

#antidolos #antidolos media #https://antidolos.com #IEO rating and review #Cryptocurrency News #Scam ICO #Scam IEO

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jobsearchtips02 · 4 years ago

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Newsletter: Rolling Back Reopenings

This is the web version of the WSJ’s newsletter on the economy. You can sign up for daily delivery here

Rolling Back

States and cities come to grips with how to contain the coronavirus while trying to reopen their economies as the number of infections in the U.S. reached more than 3.8 million. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot stated the city was tightening restrictions on some organisations. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said his city is on the verge of going back to shutdown mode. California added San Francisco County to its county watch list. Educators in hard-hit Florida moved to halt the state’s school reopening strategies. Mississippi State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said 31 lawmakers have actually contracted the virus and that there is only a single bed offered in the intensive-care systems of the Jackson metro area’s four greatest medical centers, Allison Prang and Jennifer Calfas report.

On fortunately front: The number of brand-new coronavirus cases in the U.S. increased at the slowest pace in a week And New york city City entered its fourth and final phase of resuming on Monday with the resumption of outside places, though some lockdown restrictions, including a ban on indoor dining, will stay in impact.

WHAT TO VIEW TODAY

The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to vote on the nominations of Judy Shelton and Christopher Waller to the Federal Reserve at 2 p.m. ET.

President Trump holds an interview at 5 p.m. ET.

Japan’s Jibun Bank composite index for the very first weeks of July is out at 8: 30 p.m. ET.

TOP STORIES

The Final Countdown

European Union leaders agreed on a EUR1.8 trillion ($ 2.06 trillion) costs bundle aimed at consisting of an unmatched financial decline. The plan, developed around the bloc’s first-ever issuance of hundreds of billions of euros of common financial obligation, came together early Tuesday after 4 days of talks. The agreement represents a considerable step in the EU’s approach a more real fiscal union. Some have hailed it as the bloc’s Hamiltonian minute, describing Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Treasury secretary, who had the federal government take in the debts of U.S. states. Some financial experts, however, state the money might just make a modest distinction to restore depressed economies, Laurence Norman reports.

Republicans outlined their concerns for the next round of coronavirus aid, requiring legal protections for businesses and cash to reopen schools but no new funding for states and cities. Senate Republicans are anticipated to unveil their bill later today at a critical moment in the coronavirus pandemic, with cases increasing in lots of states and new indications that the economic healing might be stalling. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer stated Monday that a bill that didn’t consist of brand-new aid for states and cities was a nonstarter, Kristina Peterson, Andrew Restuccia and Catherine Lucey report.

The Senate on Monday confirmed previous conservative activist Russell Vought to be director of the White Home Workplace of Management and Spending Plan, a role he has held in an acting capacity given that March, Paul Kiernan reports.

Back-to-school goes Do It Yourself Moms and dads, intimidated by a flurry of hybrids of virtual and in-person lessons, are making their own strategies Some moms and dads are pooling their children together and paying for tutors, others are exploring outside classes, Anne Marie Chaker reports.

While the federal government arguments its next steps, time is running out for numerous dining establishments Government aid has gone out, and breaks from landlords and suppliers are coming due as fewer restaurants want to consume inside. Countless restaurants have actually closed so far, and as many as 10%of independent operators could shut by year’s end as an outcome of the brand-new coronavirus, Heather Haddon reports.

Silver and Gold

The cost of silver rose for the ninth time in 12 sessions Monday, striking a nearly four-year high with investors gathering to rare-earth elements during the financial uncertainty brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Rates are up 8.5%so far in July and have surged 71%from a low hit in mid-March, lifted by the steady haven purchasing that likewise has actually powered gold to a multiyear peak. Front-month gold futures added 0.4%to $1,81590 a troy ounce on Monday, logging their greatest close considering that September2011 Gold is within 4%of its record struck that year, Amrith Ramkumar reports.

Cold, difficult cash The gap has actually widened each year since, according to data from the Federal Reserve

TWEET OF THE DAY

WHAT ELSE WE’RE READING

If high-skill employees can’t migrate to tasks, the tasks move to high-skill workers Combining visa data and comprehensive data on U.S. international company activity, I find that constraints on H-1B immigration triggered foreign affiliate employment increases at the intensive and extensive margins, especially in Canada, India and China,” the University of Pennsylvania’s Britta Glennon composes in a brand-new working paper

Actual Time Economics has released a downloadable calendar with succinct previews forecasts and analysis of significant U.S. data releases. To add to your calendar please click on this link

%%.

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/newsletter-rolling-back-reopenings/

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toomanysinks · 6 years ago

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Regarding Facebook’s cryptocurrency

If Bloomberg and the New York Times are to be believed, later this year Facebook will introduce a cryptocurrency which will allow WhatsApp users to send money instantly. Yes, that’s right: Facebook. Cryptocurrency. Earthquake! Revolution! The world is tilting on its axis! The end times are cometh!

Except – um – what exactly are people going to do with FaceCoin, once they receive it?

This is not Facebook’s first venture into virtual currencies, payments, or peer-to-peer payments via messenger app. Remember Facebook Credits, its previous virtual currency, launched in 2011 and sunset two years later? Remember Facebook Gifts, launched in 2012 and sunset two years later (there’s a theme here) in part because, to quote the redoubtable Josh Constine, “Facebook never found a way solve distance and localization problems to make Gifts work internationally”? And of course Facebook Messenger Payments launched in the US in 2015 and expanded to Europe two years later.

But FaceCoin is different; FaceCoin is on a blockchain. (As a longtime blockchain enthusiast I feel I have earned some right to be a bit sarcastic here.) And FaceCoin is reportedly a stablecoin backed by a basket of fiat currencies, a la the SDRs of the IMF.

So it’s on a blockchain. What does a blockchain give you? Well, conceivably, smart contracts, but if it’s a backed stablecoin used for P2P transfer, it’s hard to see how those are relevant. Also, conceivably, privacy. Right now the crypto world offers stablecoins (Dai, Paxos, etc.) and privacy coins (ZCash, Monero, Grin) but — weirdly — nobody offers a private stablecoin. If Facebook were to do so, that would, in fact, be a genuinely big deal. Not least because:

On one end, a completely private and encrypted messaging service tied to an open, Zerocoin-like, zk-SNARK backed cryptocurrency and backed by a tech giant would instantly become the go-to mechanism for global money laundering, tax evasion, and just general criming.

— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) February 28, 2019

Conversely, if FaceCoin isn’t private:

On the other, without mathematically-backed privacy features having all of this data in one place would be a massive source of security and privacy risk, and a huge boon for countries with leverage over FB to get data access.

Wow, gonna be an interesting couple of years.

— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) February 28, 2019

…although that assumes that it’s actually widely used, an outcome which is, to say the least, far from automatic. Again, just because Facebook launches a stablecoin cryptocurrency for peer-to-peer payments doesn’t mean people will actually use it. Remember Facebook Credits. Remember Facebook Gifts.

The trouble with stablecoins for payments, at least at the moment, is that businesses don’t accept them, so you have to convert them into fiat currency, like dollars or euros or cedis or what-have-you, in order to actually buy things like groceries or rides. True, Facebook could offer goods and services for purchase themselves in exchange for FaceCoin, but then it would basically be Facebook Credits all over again.

But remittances! you cry. Yes, very much so. Remittances are a massive market, and a holy grail of cryptocurrencies, and WhatsApp is widely used worldwide. Remittances are the obvious target market here. And it would be huge, and important, and wonderful, if Facebook were to make remittances 10x cheaper and faster … but that would require much more than fast international stablecoin transfers, because, again, those stablecoins are not legal tender at their destination, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed but businesses tend to have this whole thing about receiving legal tender.

So, yes, it’s great if you can send five thousand FaceCoin to your family in Ghana for an 0.1% fee. But then your family in Ghana has to somehow convert them to cedis at an exchange — a task which is, as of this writing, likely to be slower, much clumsier, far more user-hostile, and very possibly even more expensive than the usual medium(s) of remittances.

If Facebook can bulldoze that obstacle, though — then we’re talking about a big deal.

I see two possibilities. One is to establish partnerships with other companies such that they will accept FaceCoin themselves, so it becomes valuable outside of Facebook’s walled garden. But I can’t see this working. Again, it’s still not legal tender; it’s infeasible to partner with everybody; and it just adds more complexity for the user — “wait, do I want to pay for this with FaceCoin or cedis? Wait, do they even accept FaceCoin? Hmm, how does my government feel about FaceCoin and taxes, I wonder?” — , and the global WhatsApp audience rightly doesn’t want to deal with this. They just want money they can use.

But the other alternative is for Facebook to establish relationships with cryptocurrency exchanges worldwide, or — even more dramatically — become or sponsor exchanges themselves. Remember, much of the world already uses mobile money extensively. Imagine if FaceCoin could be seamlessly converted into eg M-Pesa or Orange Money immediately upon receipt. Then you could buy a thousand FaceCoin for US dollars in Houston; send it to your brother in Ghana, at the speed of the Internet (or maybe in a few minutes, depending on how FaceCoin’s blockchain works); and when he wants to spend it, he just pushes a button on his phone to convert it at the day’s rate into cedis in his MTN Mobile Money account, courtesy of Facebook’s Ghanaian exchange partner, in exchange for a tiny percentage of that rate.

That would be a huge, huge deal. First, it would offer seamless, immediate, user-friendly international remittances, which itself would be massive (the remittance market is roughly half a trillion dollars a year.) Second, it would allow anyone with a phone and the Facebook app to maintain a personal account in stablecoins backed by a basket of hard currencies. Ask any Venezuelan or Zimbabwean, or for that matter Argentinian, why that would matter.

That would also be insanely messy from a legal / regulatory standpoint. There are privacy issues. There are security issues. There are liquidity issues. There are KYC / AML issues. There are regulatory issues involving not just one, or a few, but conceivably hundreds of regulatory domains. But if anyone has the reach and money and wherewithal to push that armada of boulders up this hill, it’s Facebook — and the carrot of collecting, say, a few dozen basis points from the $500 billion/year remittances market is more than enough to incentivize them to do so.

I could well be wrong. There’s a very good chance that FaceCoin will just be Facebook Credits meets Facebook Gifts, except on the blockchain for no particular reason, in which case it too will presumably fade sheepishly away to be sunsetted two years after it launches. And even if I’m right, I too am deeply uneasy about Facebook, who have repeatedly shown themselves to be the opposite of trustworthy, becoming the global gateway for remittance payments worldwide. (Although, hey, it could arguably be even worse.) Maybe their blockchain will be sufficiently decentralized to be somewhat decouple from their influence, but that seems awfully unlikely (and would be pretty undesirable to regulators).

But if I’m right — then this is actually a really big deal, one which could be meaningfully important on a very personal and day-to-day level for many millions of people worldwide. Facebook would be, to my mind, at very best a deeply flawed messenger of this change … but they’re still (probably) better them than nobody, and, importantly, if they were to blaze this trail, it would then be much easier for others to follow.

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/03/regarding-facebooks-cryptocurrency/

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fmservers · 6 years ago

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Regarding Facebook’s cryptocurrency

Except – um – what exactly are people going to do with FaceCoin, once they receive it?

— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) February 28, 2019

Conversely, if FaceCoin isn’t private:

Wow, gonna be an interesting couple of years.

— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) February 28, 2019

If Facebook can bulldoze that obstacle, though — then we’re talking about a big deal.

Via Jon Evans https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

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linabrigette · 6 years ago

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eToro Market Research: Stellar

Note: This market research report on Stellar is provided by eToro

Summary

Stellar is a network for decentralized payments that offers extremely fast transactions with negligible fees and the possibility of exchanging directly between different currencies. With these characteristics, Stellar aims to become a standard solution for banking services and international remittances all over the world.

The mission of Stellar is to implement a blockchain solution that can improve the state of our global financial system by drastically reducing transaction times and costs.

All information is valid as of June 10th, 2018. All feedback is welcome.

Basic Statistics

Crypto-asset type: Utility Token

Total Supply: 103,926,681,379 XLM

Supply: 18,576,319,348 XLM

New XLM tokens are released periodically to individuals, partners, and charities. This give away will continue until 95% of the total supply are released (5% is assigned to the Stellar Foundation).

Market Capitalization: $6.8 billion

Token Economics: Inflationary Asset

100 billion created initially and 1% annual inflation rate since.

Protocol: Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), implementation of Federated Byzantine Agreement.

History

Stellar was created in 2014 by developer Jed McCaleb and technology entrepreneur and attorney Joyce Kim. The former was already one of the main faces in the cryptocurrency sphere after founding Mt. Gox, the most important Bitcoin exchange at the time. After selling most of his stakes at Mt. Gox, which would end up filing for bankruptcy in February 2014, he co-founded Ripple, one of the most well-known cryptocurrencies. Due to differences with the rest of the Ripple team, McCaleb decided to launch a new cryptocurrency inheriting the main structure of his former project and implementing some of his new ideas.

The non-profit Stellar Development Foundation, with the initial support of private

payments company Stripe, released the Stellar network as a blockchain for decentralized payments. Originally, the currency itself was named stellars (with ticker STR) and was then rebranded to Lumens (XLM). Lumens have been given away ever since to individuals in small quantities, to Bitcoin and Ripple holders and to nonprofit and strategic partners. 5% of the total supply is assigned to the Stellar Foundation for supporting the network operations, and the remaining Lumens will continue to be released periodically.

The network was completely overhauled in late 2015, introducing a new consensus protocol called SCP, and has since experienced a dramatic rise in price and usage and has been consistently ranked among the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization ever since.

Development Team

As co-founder, Jed McCaleb has been the main figure behind Stellar since its creation. The role of David Mazières as creator of the unique Stellar Consensus Protocol is also remarkable. Finally, Patrick Collison is the third member of the Stellar Development Foundation, and acts as an important advisor for the project.

Jed McCaleb is an American developer and entrepreneur. In 2000, he co-created eDonkey, a peer-to-peer file sharing platform. During the surge of Bitcoin, he focused on cryptocurrencies and created Mt. Gox, by far the most important Bitcoin exchange in the world at the time, and later co-founded Ripple, currently the third most valuable cryptocurrency after Bitcoin and Ethereum. After leaving the Ripple team, he created Stellar and has since acted as its main leader.

David Mazières is a Professor of Computer Sciences at Stanford with a PhD from MIT who has focused his academic career on cybersecurity. He is the creator of the secure consensus protocol that powers the Stellar network, and has also been involved in a variety of other open-source projects.

Keith Rabois is an American technology entrepreneur famous for his very early investments and involvement with several extremely successful companies. He has held executive positions at PayPal, LinkedIn, Square and Khosla Ventures, among others. He is part of the Stellar Foundation board, and has stated in several occasions how Stellar can achieve the original goal of PayPal.

Use Cases

Stellar has built a powerful network with XLM as its network currency. Its main use case is analogous to that of a traditional fiat currency like euros or dollars, but with the advantages of a decentralized and secure online network.

Stellar implements a network specially targeted for companies, banks and payment providers. A significant part of the global population, even in first-world countries like the United States, does not use or does not even have access to banking and financial services. The possibilities of a global, instant and essentially free network are almost limitless for a variety of applications.

Remittances: bank transfers, particularly those that are relatively small or that are sent abroad, can greatly benefit from a network with almost instant transactions, negligible fees (below $0.01) and no physical restrictions. Deloitte, one of the biggest consulting firms in the world, partnered with Stellar to develop a mobile app prototype to make international payments. Tempo is another partner of Stellar that offers a working solution for international payments from Europe to the rest of the world, with presence in more than 120 countries.

Currency Exchange: as an interesting extension of the previous point, exchanging between different fiat currencies with instant transactions and no hidden fees can be readily implemented with Stellar as long as there is a liquid market between XLM and the desired fiat currencies.

Mobile Money: mobile payments are an increasingly popular solution for sending money to friends, family and local businesses. Parkway is another partner of Stellar that focuses on offering payment solutions for African countries where customers of different telecommunication companies can send money to each other or pay for different products and services.

Banking: banks and other financial institutions can use Stellar to offer online-based banking solutions to customers, without the physical restrictions of traditional banking or the costs associated with having a physical branch.

Some ICOs have already raised large amounts of capital on the Stellar network. Although it does not offer Turing-complete smart contracts like Ethereum, by far the most popular blockchain for ICOs at the moment, Stellar can provide a faster and cheaper way of raising money for ICOs.

An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is the equivalent in the crypto-sphere of securities’ IPOs. Unlike IPOs, which are harshly regulated, ICOs are still lacking significant regulation and allow average Joe investors to support their favourite projects from a very early stage.

Some ICOs have been extremely successful, raising hundreds of millions of dollars.

Technical Description

Transactions on the Stellar network have a tiny associated fee of 0.00001 XLM or 100 stroops (around $0.000003 at current prices). This fee acts mainly as an anti-spam measure, in order to prevent users from flooding the network with thousands of transactions. The fee is not “gained” by anyone, they are instead redistributed through inflation by the ledger itself. The network is completely free to use for start-ups, companies and institutions that want to integrate the network with their services.

The Stellar network is considered much more scalable than some of the other popular blockchains. Compared to the 5 transactions per second of Bitcoin and 20 transactions per second of Ethereum, Stellar can handle more than 1,000 transactions per second in the network. This, along with the negligible fees, makes it much more suitable for the mainstream global application.

An important difference between Stellar and most other digital currencies is that it lets you use fiat currencies like USD or EUR for your transactions. The distributed exchange built natively in the Stellar network allows anyone to send money to a different currency, by using the different anchors of the network and the current exchange prices. With this system, anyone can send money anywhere in the world instantly and without any of the fees associated with currency exchange and international transactions. Stellar will use the most convenient chain of transactions (with XLM as the intermediate currency) to reach the currency of the recipient. For instance, a European user sending EUR to someone in America would automatically use a EUR → XLM → USD. If certain exchange pairs are very illiquid, the Stellar network will try to find a better chain perhaps involving additional intermediate currencies.

The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) is the mechanism by which the transactions are confirmed and secured in the Stellar network. SCP claims to be the first consensus protocol that gathers four very important features at the same time: decentralization, low latency, flexible trust and asymptotic security.

In sum, SCP is a form of federated byzantine agreement. This means that the protocol tolerates byzantine failure, that is, nodes of the network sending wrong or random information. The federated attribute is also important. A quorum is defined in a consensus protocol as the number of nodes necessary to reach agreement. Stellar introduces the concept of quorum slice, which is the set of nodes that a particular node decides to trust. Effectively, this means that a participant of the network can decide who needs to validate a certain transaction for them to believe it. Nodes that lie or provide wrong information will generally not be trusted by the rest of the network. The different slices will then intersect with each other conforming the whole Stellar network. Each quorum slice will ratify the different transactions, which are then confirmed by the totality of the network.

Stellar can also be used to build smart contracts. In the Stellar network, these are formed by a series of transactions that are executed in connection with each other and depending on a set of constraints. Multi-signature accounts, escrow services or scheduling transactions for a certain time frame are some of the immediate applications of smart contracts in the Stellar network.

A smart contract is analogous to a traditional contract between two parties, with the difference that the enforcement of the contract is guaranteed by the underlying blockchain and therefore there is no need for a central authority or legal system to enforce it.

Smart contracts were first proposed in 1994 by Nick Szabo and found their first large-scale implementation on the Ethereum network.

Future Developments

Stellar keeps securing important partnerships in the payment and banking industries. BloomX, a company focusing on providing platforms and solutions for banks and Money Service Businesses (MSBs), has recently chosen Stellar as their preferred blockchain and digital currency.

Another important recent partnership is IBM. The tech giant has chosen Stellar as its main blockchain solution for cross-border payments and remittances, and is running verification nodes and developing projects in the network. These huge partnerships can bring Stellar to a much wider audience.

Kik, the popular messaging app, is also working on the Stellar network through its Kin ecosystem. Concerned with the scalability problems of Ethereum, they see Stellar as a more suitable option for micro-payments integrated in their messaging app. They will in fact use a forked version of the network with completely nonexistent transaction fees.

Upcoming Projects

As stated above, some important ICOs have already taken place in the Stellar network and will continue to do so. Some of the best examples are:

SureRemit is a project that aims to provide a simple app solution to pay for bills, food, send vouchers, etc. They have already released working versions of their apps.

Ternio is developing a network able to support over 1 million transactions per second that will be focused on the multi-billion advertisement and marketing industry.

Mobius is a project supported by Jed McCaleb himself that aims to connect the blockchain with the “real world”, that is, with existing businesses, apps and data from around the Internet. Mobius raised a reported $39 million during their ICO.

Lumen Distribution

An important difference between Stellar and most other blockchains is that the XLM tokens were not sold in an ICO or mined, but are rather distributed for free by the Stellar Foundation. The distribution of the initial

100 billion XLM considers the following breakdown:

50% are distributed in small batches (50 to 300 XLM) to individuals that register through invitation links that are regularly given away in meet-ups, partner events, etc.

25% are given to partners, organizations and companies that support and bring adoption to the Stellar network.

20% was scheduled to be given to holders of other cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (19%) and Ripple (1%). These XLM were already distributed in two rounds in 2016 and 2017.

The remaining 5% is reserved for the Stellar Foundation to cover operational expenses of running the network and are sold periodically in auctions. The Stellar Foundation has so far distributed 8 billion tokens in total.

Giving away their tokens in this fashion instead of raising money with an ICO or selling batches to strategic investors has allowed Stellar to reach a great number of potential users and provide them with a small number of tokens to use the service for free. It is certainly a very interesting approach to increase the adoption and recognition of the project.

Token Valuation Analysis

The characteristics of the Stellar network make a valuation analysis of the XLM token particularly complex. It is not clear if the use of XLM purely as a medium of exchange will justify a very large market capitalization for a variety of reasons:

Fees are virtually negligible in order to make the network suitable for micropayments.

Transactions are extremely fast, taking only 4 to 5 seconds to go through.

One of the main uses of Stellar is to act as a sort of intermediary token between other currencies.

When these three points are considered together, it is clear that at least some users of the network may simply hold XLM during the few seconds that a transaction lasts. In other words, the value of a certain asset, in this case the market capitalization of the Stellar network, does not equal necessarily the transaction volume of the network. These two quantities are in fact connected by a parameter known as the velocity of money, following is the prevailing equation for calculating the value of a cryptocurrency:

MV = PQ

where:

M is the total supply of the cryptocurrency.

V is the velocity of money, which measures how many times a unit of the currency is used in a certain period.

P and Q are the price and quantity of the digital service or resource, and can be thought of as the transaction volume of the blockchain (the economic value transacted in a certain period).

It is typically very hard to provide an estimation for the value of the velocity of money. For reference, the US dollar M1 supply (coins, notes and readily accessible deposits) typically has a velocity between 5 and 10. It is clear from the equation above that a larger value of the velocity will lead to a less valuable currency, since the same supply can be used to provide a larger transaction volume.

In the case of Stellar, it can be expected that the velocity will be quite high if there is a significant adoption of the network, due to the three reasons outlined above. This could change if XLM are used as a store of value and a significant amount of the supply is hodled instead of exchanged frequently. This process has occurred with Bitcoin and is perhaps the main driver of the price of the first cryptocurrency.

In fact, when using the values of transaction volume and market capitalization available online, the possible value of the velocity obtained is extremely low:

It should be noted however that only the XLM on-chain transactions are included in the value of the transaction volume above.

Anchors providing the possibility of exchanging XLM for other currencies will also need to hold significant amounts of the token to provide liquidity for the exchange markets. It is not clear however if this could drive the price up since these agents are frequently distributed tokens directly from the Stellar Foundation.

Another mechanism that incentivizes holding the token is programmatic inflation. As stated before, there is a 1% yearly inflation rate, with new tokens being created weekly and distributed to XLM accounts that receive a certain number of votes. Since these votes depend on the number of XLM a certain account has, holding a significant amount of XLM can provide a user with a portion of the tokens created every week.

On a separate note, the fact that a vast majority of the token supply is still locked by the Stellar Foundation and has not been distributed yet introduces a certain degree of uncertainty, since it is not clear how it will affect the price of the token once the whole supply is in circulation.

The decision of how and when to release these tokens is currently decided by Stellar Development Foundation and its community and advisors, and the foundation intends to further decentralize this decision-making in 2018. It is important that the tokens are distributed in a gradual way and that they are distributed to strategic institutions and initiatives that can give further value to the network.

In short, because the transaction fees are so incredibly low and the total supply of coins is so incredibly high, the velocity of the tokens is virtually insignificant and though

we feel that the Stellar network can completely revolutionize the remittance industry and other vital parts of our economy, there is very little economic case for the tokens to rise in value in the near future.

There is however significant upside potential for the whole cryptocurrency market, and if the total crypto market capitalization were to rise to $10 trillion an increase of approximately +1,900%, as hypothesized by a research paper from RBC, and Stellar maintained its share of the market, one XLM would be worth $8.55.

Investment Risks

Trading cryptocurrencies can potentially be very profitable as seen in the past, but it is also a very challenging activity that can carry a significant level of risk. Cryptocurrency markets are associated with high volatility, and Stellar is no exception.

Although the technology, concept and use case of Stellar is really groundbreaking, we believe it is not completely clear yet what the actual adoption of the network will be and how that will influence the performance of the XLM token as an investment. However, developers and money transmitters may find useful utility in using XLM to operate on the Stellar network.

It is important to carefully assess your investment goals, methodology and level of experience before deciding to start investing in a new market. It is also extremely important to diversify and view cryptocurrency as an additional element of your portfolio. Given the high risk associated with this type of asset, it is recommended not to allocate more than 20% of your portfolio into cryptocurrencies. Given that the possibility to lose a part or even all the money invested exists, it is extremely important to invest only money that you can afford to lose.

In any case, all the information presented in this Market Report does not constitute financial advice, and introduces no obligation or recommendations for action.

Technical Analysis

Exhibit 1: Evolution of XLM/USD price since February 2017. Note that the scale is logarithmic.

Exhibit 1 shows the historical evolution of the XLM/USD price since February 2017 (when it was trading at less than a cent, $0.0021) until June 2018, trading now around $0.294. This spectacular 14,000% rise has made Stellar one of the most successful projects in the cryptocurrency environment, although it reached an all-time high value of $0.933 in January 2018. Please note, that we have used a log-scale graph, which is very popular for showing relative percentage movements.

Since the aforementioned all-time high of $0.933, XLM has experienced a severe correction of 68.7%. Like the vast majority of cryptocurrencies, XLM is strongly dependent on the price evolution of Bitcoin, and it also follows quite closely that of Ripple, something that could be expected given the origins of Stellar and their similar use cases.

An evolution of the price during 2018 is shown in Exhibit 2. A clear downtrend from January to the beginning of April brought the price down to $0.16. Stellar then doubled in price quickly during April and has now corrected and found a relatively stable value around $0.30. A clear descending wedge was broken in the last week and XLM seems to have found a rather solid support which could act as a starting point for an uptrend in the short and mid-term. Its evolution will however depend greatly on how Bitcoin performs.

Exhibit 2 also shows a comparison with Bitcoin and Ethereum. Stellar rose dramatically in the lapse of just a few days in January 2018 when compared to the two main cryptocurrencies, but has since followed quite closely the major trends of the cryptocurrency market.

Exhibit 2: Percentual evolution of the XLM/USD price since December 2017, compared with Bitcoin and Ethereum. A descending wedge forming during May is also shown.

Resources

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrencies are not regulated. You will not benefit from the protections available to clients receiving regulated investment services. The content is intended for educational purposes only and should not be considered as investment advice. Your capital is at risk. eToro’s officers, directors or employees may own or have positions in investments mentioned.

Any price or investment predictions, analysis, and/or advice contained in this report is not endorsed by the Stellar Development Foundation, and is not a reflection of any public or private communications from the Stellar Development Foundation.

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#Cryptocurrency news #Bitcoin news #btcoin price today

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robertscollegenotes · 7 years ago

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Todays headlines:

The book that I am currently reading, Mythologies by Roland Barthes.

News headlines of today:

Border will be like crossing London boroughs - Johnson

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has dismissed concerns that leaving the customs union after Brexit could lead to a hard border by comparing travel between the Republic and Northern Ireland to crossing London boroughs. He also indicated once again that there would be no need for "excessive checks" between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, in an apparent reference to the congestion charge for drivers in London, which does not require checks on the road. Mr. Johnson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We think that we can have very efficient facilitation systems to make sure that there's no need for a hard border, excessive checks at the frontier between Northern Ireland and the Republic."There's no border between Islington or Camden and Westminster, there's no border between Camden and Westminster, but when I was mayor of London we aesthetically and invisibly took hundreds of millions of pounds from the accounts of people traveling between those two boroughs without any need for border checks whatever.

At least three people dead after Co Fermanagh house fire

The PSNI has confirmed that “at least” three people have died in a house fire in Co Fermanagh. Police said they were called to an address in the Molly Road area of Derry in at around 7.20am on Tuesday. “Sadly we can confirm that three people have lost their lives in this fire,” said Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy.

UK weather: Snow chaos with schools closed, roads blocked and trains canceled - latest news, travel updates and forecast

Heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures are causing travel disruption as wintry weather dubbed the "Beast from the East" intensifies, as hundreds of schools have been forced to close.Roads across the UK were covered in a blanketing of snow on Tuesday morning, with police forces reporting treacherous driving conditions and blocked routes.Highways England said the M20 in Kent had become blocked by a "number" of stranded lorries overnight, while the A249 was shut due to a crash. Areas around Harrogate and Craven were also particularly treacherous, according to North Yorkshire Police.

The Met Office said several centimeters of snow had fallen in some parts over the night - with 1cm in Kent by 5am, and between 3cm and 4cm in Newcastle and Northumberland.

'Ensuring happier lives': Chinese media defends move to make Xi Jinping all-powerful

The Communist party’s decision to abolish presidential term limits – a move experts and critics have condemned as a lurch towards unchecked dictatorship in China – is designed to “ensure people live happier lives”, a pro-Beijing newspaper has claimed. The China Daily, an English-language broadsheet that serves as an international mouthpiece for Beijing’s views, said the move, announced on Sunday ahead of an annual political summit in Beijing, was “necessitated by the need to perfect the party and the state leadership system”. 'Dictator for life': Xi Jinping's power grab condemned as step towards tyranny. “The strong leadership of the [Communist Party of China] has proved to be a decisive factor for what this country has achieved both economically and politically over the past four decades,” it argued in an editorial.

Trump Says He Would Have Rushed in Unarmed to Stop School Shooting

WASHINGTON — President Trump asserted Monday that he would have rushed in to save the students and teachers of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School from a gunman with an assault weapon, even if he was unarmed at the time of the massacre.Speaking to a meeting of the country’s governors at the White House, Mr. Trump conceded that “you don’t know until you test it.” But he said he believed he would have exhibited bravery “even if I didn’t have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that, too.” The president’s remarks came during an hour-long televised conversation with the governors in the State Dining Room, during which Mr. Trump continued to grapple publicly with how best to respond to the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., discussing such things as arming teachers and reopening mental institutions.

Dems fear overreach as left presses assault weapon ban

Democrats will meet Tuesday morning in the Capitol to discuss their next steps on gun control as they wrestle with how to move forward following one of the deadliest mass shootings in the nation’s modern history. The party is galvanized behind the idea that Congress should take action on gun control but faces warnings from some Democrats that reaching too far could drive away voters in the swing districts they’ll need to retake the Speaker’s gavel. A number of rank-and-file lawmakers view this month’s shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school as a potential tipping point in the years-long congressional stalemate over new gun restrictions. Shedding caution, this growing chorus of Democrats is calling for extensive reforms, including a ban on military-style weapons.

Market watch:

Comcast Sets Stage to Fight Fox, Disney With $31 Billion Sky Bid

Comcast jumped into the fray for Sky Plc, challenging Rupert Murdoch’s 21 Century Fox Inc. and Walt Disney Co. with a cash offer valuing the business at 22.1 billion pounds ($31 billion) and opening the possibility of a bidding contest for the U.K.’s biggest pay-TV company. After months spent scoping out Sky’s technology platform and content proposition of sports and entertainment across five countries, the owner of NBCUniversal offered 12.50 pounds per Sky share on Tuesday. That exceeds the 10.75 pounds offered by Fox for the 61 percent stake it doesn’t already own in the European broadcaster by about 16 percent.

Hedge funds’ faith in euro dwindles ahead of political ‘Super Sunday’

Optimism over the recent euro rally is fading. Speculative investors have cut their exposure to the shared currency to the lowest level this year, as caution ahead of the Italian election and German coalition vote on Sunday sets in. According to data from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission out late Friday, hedge funds and money managers slashed their net long positions in the euro EURUSD, +0.0244% to 126,126 contracts in the week ending Feb. 20. That’s the lowest level since late December.

Long/interesting reads:

https://longreads.com/2018/02/22/how-black-panther-asks-us-to-examine-who-we-are-to-one-another/

Rahawa Haile considers how, by sliding between the real and unreal, Black Panther frees us to imagine the possibilities — and the limitations — of an Africa that does not yet exist.

https://rasmuskleisnielsen.net/2018/02/26/open-societies-and-robust-institutions-talking-points-on-how-we-can-fight-disinformation/

Open societies and robust institutions – talking points on how we can fight disinformation

http://firstround.com/review/master-the-art-of-influence-persuasion-as-a-skill-and-habit/

The reality is that visionaries like Steve Jobs haven’t been successful because they thought of something amazing and original out of thin air. Rather, they were gifted at constantly persuading many people to follow them on their journey to something amazing and original.

#currently reading #long reads #news headlines #journalism #blog #writerslife #writing #college #journalist #marketwatch

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newstfionline · 7 years ago

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Spain’s Long Economic Nightmare Is Finally Over

By Peter S. Goodman, NY Times, July 28, 2017

MARTORELL, Spain--Inside a factory as cavernous as an airport terminal, half-built cars glide down the assembly line in a parade that never ends. Workers in coveralls sidle up on queue, attending to the meticulously timed tasks of turning steel into road-ready sedans.

The bustling activity at the SEAT auto factory in this industrial town just west of Barcelona attests to the new reality coloring life in Spain. The economy is growing again, expanding at around three percent pace over the last year, producing goods for export, generating jobs and restoring a sense of normalcy to a nation that has been saturated in despair.

This is good news not merely for Spain, but for Europe and the rest of the global economy.

For most of the last decade, Spain has suffered as an extreme example of the economic carnage that has assailed the 19 nations sharing the common European currency. Its astonishing levels of unemployment, which peaked at 26 percent, stood as a prominent marker of the desperation inflicted by the implosion of its real estate investment bubble, combined with the global financial crisis.

Now, Spain’s economy has returned to its pre-crisis size, according to data released by the government on Friday. This seemingly puts the finish to one of the worst economic catastrophes to play out in Europe in the years since World War II. It suggests that the continent, still grappling with formidable, even existential challenges, has finally achieved recovery.

The sense of revival is palpable along the Barcelona waterfront, where stevedores work the arms of giant cranes hoisting containers full of factory wares onto giant vessels bound for points across Europe and Asia. It infuses a crop of start-up companies filling up the forlorn office spaces in major Spanish cities, where the cost of living looks more reasonable than London or Paris. It permeates even the vineyards, where a crop of young entrepreneurs is capturing spoils by reimagining family businesses, exporting classic wines in new bottles.

Spain’s experience offers lessons for Europe, though in precisely what way depends on one’s views on how things went so wrong.

Under one school of thought, Spain was a victim of the budget austerity imposed by European leaders in a wrongheaded effort to choke the crisis. Faced with the bursting of the real estate bubble combined with a global downturn, the government should have unleashed money on infrastructure projects to generate jobs.

Instead, rules governing the euro forced Spain to limit spending, extending the agony. Spain’s newfound global competitiveness is in large part a function of how wages have remained depressed even as jobs have returned. In this telling, Spain’s resurgence is less cause for celebration than a grim reminder of how long it took.

The pain is etched in the numbers. The unemployment rate remains above 18 percent, and is near 39 percent for younger workers. Some 4.25 million people in a nation of 47 million are officially looking for work. Even in areas of growth, fraught labor negotiations and frequent strikes attest to the insecurity of work and the pain of diminished wages.

Others cite Spain as a validation of the revivifying powers of tough economic reforms. Spain made it easier for employers to fire workers, thus making them more willing to hire. In this telling, Spain is a useful template for France, as its new president, Emmanuel Macron, girds for resistance from unions to his own labor alterations.

Spain’s economic reconfiguration is widely hailed as a key driver of growth. A decade ago, the country was hopelessly addicted to a credit-fueled construction boom that produced a shattering bust, leaving banks collapsing in the face of bad loans.

Today, construction is at half its previous weight in the Spanish economy. Exports have swelled to close to one-third from about one-fourth of the national economy.

The massive SEAT (pronounced say-AHT) factory, part of the Volkswagen Group, is a prime example of how Spain has seen its fortunes lifted by exports. Back in 2010, the plant was losing money while producing 300,000 cars a year. Last year, it rang up profits of 153 million euros (about $172 million) making 450,000 cars and exporting more than 80 percent of those vehicles. It has shifted to manufacturing higher-profit products like Audi sedans.

Within the whole of the Spanish economy, cars, trucks and auto parts now collectively compose more than 17 percent of total exports, according to data assembled by the M.I.T. Media Lab’s Observatory of Economic Complexity.

“They have become a model industry in Spain in terms of how to become successful, and reform, and compete abroad,” said Angel Talavera, a senior eurozone economist with Oxford Economics in London.

The SEAT plant is midway through a five-year upgrade, injecting some €3.3 billion (about $3.8 billion) worth of new machinery into its operations. When company executives touted their VW overseers on the merits of investing such an enormous sum in Spain, they pointed to the labor reforms.

“It was a relevant sign,” said Joachim Hinz, director of financial planning at the SEAT complex. “This country is moving in the right direction.”

On a recent afternoon at the factory, driverless carts roll quietly, carrying parts to workers just as they are needed. Computer sensors send alerts when anything goes awry; a screw left loose, an electrical connection not made.

“If you’re a loss maker, you’re fighting like hell every day, 365 days of the year, to get better, Mr. Hinz said. “A crisis holds an opportunity.”

Many of SEAT’s finished autos are loaded onto rail cars and conveyed to the port of Barcelona, where stevedores drive them onto ships destined for Italy, Germany and beyond. Over the first six months of this year, record volumes of traffic moved through the Barcelona port, an increase of 18 percent compared to the same period a year earlier.

On a recent morning, hundreds of men and women gathered at the union hall, drinking coffee out of cardboard cups and hollering greetings as they watched numbers flashing on a board overhead. The numbers determined who gets which jobs on this day--foreman, mobile crane operator, reach stacker.

During the crisis, more than half of the 700 stevedores seeking assignments went home with no job, subsisting on their guaranteed minimum pay. These days, 600 working people are pulling daily assignments.

“We are now at a similar point as before the crisis,” said Xavier Tarraga, coordinator for the regional branch of the sea workers union. “Everybody has a job.”

Spain’s swelling exports have aided once-struggling companies, helping restore the government’s tax revenues, which plummeted during the crisis. Barcelona’s local tax revenues have grown modestly, from €2.5 billion in 2013 to an anticipated yield of more than €2.7 billion this year.

The money is slowly flowing back into the economy.

Less than a mile away from the Barcelona port, workers donning safety jackets and dusty boots prepare to descend bare concrete steps to their jobs building a new subway station. Work on the long-planned expansion of the Barcelona system, a €6.8 billion ($7.6 billion) undertaking halted some three years ago, has resumed.

For Tomás López Medina, who oversees safety programs at the site, this has meant rescue from the dire math of joblessness.

He had been living on unemployment benefits worth about €1,100 a month, less than half what he and his wife had earned back in 2007. His wife had lost her own job as an administrative assistant at a construction company, when that business folded.

They had relinquished their apartment, in a vibrant neighborhood of Barcelona where his wife had grown up and where she still had family and friends. They moved into an industrial void on the outskirts of the city.

“My wife doesn’t like it,” Mr. Medina said, swallowing back tears. “There’s no life in this neighborhood. There’s no shops. Where we live now, people just sleep and go back to work.”

He and his wife had not bought clothes for years. They had forsaken seafood for chicken. His unemployment benefits were about to expire.

“We talked about the need to stay in the apartment and not pay the rent,” he said. “It didn’t feel good. That’s not the kind of people we are.”

Then the Barcelona subway extension started back up. One of the companies building stations offered him a job at €1,500 a month.

“I gave a hug to my wife,” he said.

A complete revival is still a ways off.

The Spanish government carries enormous debt, reaching 100 percent of the economy’s annual output, the leftover cost of paying out unemployment benefits during the crisis while also bailing out crippled banks. Government investment in infrastructure remains weak.

The spoils of even a tenuous recovery remain the subject of bitter acrimony. The port workers recently went on strike, seeking to secure a three-year job guarantee after absorbing a major setback in the new contract, assenting to wage cuts and allowing employers to hire outside their ranks. For those who operate existing subway lines, the strain of lower wages remains, prompting a series of labor actions that have disrupted service this summer.

And yet other opportunities have emerged. The crisis knocked down the cost of living in Spain, making Barcelona one of the most affordable, highly-desirable metropolitan areas in Europe--a realm of glorious architecture, inventive food, and pleasing weather.

By one measure, life in Barcelona is today 36 percent cheaper than London, 28 percent less expensive than Paris, and even 4 percent cheaper than Berlin, long a magnet for young people looking for European civilization at a discount.

Young professionals have arrived from around the world. Some have landed amid a growing crop of start-up companies, not unlike those in other cities full of sunshine and gourmet coffee.

The city of Barcelona has opened an incubator, offering steeply discounted rents to new companies while stocking the usual trappings of the start-up realms; irregularly shaped, low-to-the ground, uncomfortable furniture in neon hues, glass walls, open floor plans.

The crisis has also increased Spanish innovation, by forcing companies steeped in tradition to reconceive their businesses.

For years, the Virgili brothers--identical twins, Alex and Albert, 27, and their older brother Jordi, 32--hectored their father to modernize the family winery, Casa Berger. It had long churned out mass-produced, undistinguished wines, to be shipped over the border and folded into table wines bearing a label that fetched money, “Product of France.”

The brothers had visions of bottling their own wines. But their father rejected their entreaties as foolhardy. He and his own father had done it the same way for a half-century. The business had sustained them.

Yet even before the crisis, Casa Berger’s sales were slipping. The crisis threatened bankruptcy. For the brothers, here was an opportunity.

They conceived an idea that seemed at once ridiculous and sublime. They would bottle white wine made from the xarel-lo grape, a local varietal of no particular distinction. They would label their bottles with a crude Catalan pun, calling it El Xitxarel-lo, which roughly translates to “young, stupid guy.” They covered their bottle with six dozen other Catalan insults.

“When we told our father and our uncle that we wanted to launch a bottle with 77 different Catalan insults, they said ‘O.K., but please don’t put our brand on the bottle,’” Albert recalled.

Today, El Xitxarel-lo, marketed through a homespun and irreverent social media campaign, amounts to the blockbuster that has saved the family business. Starting with 3,000 bottles in the fall 2013, it now sells 85,000 bottles a year.

The brothers recently opened La Festival, a retailer of organic wines set up in a Barcelona neighborhood full of hardware stores turned into gastro pubs. One wall is devoted to taps that draw from tanks full of wine. One tap offers wine from Finca Parera, the work of Rubén Parera, a 37-year-old vintner who persuaded his own reluctant father to chop down cherry, plum and peach trees at his struggling orchard to make room for grapes.

Customers at La Festival bring in refillable growlers and leave with wine to carry home. Which means the Virgili Brothers have engineered success by reinventing the very commodity their family began with--bulk wine.

On a recent evening, they were readying for a trip to New York to seek new customers, potentially adding wine bearing Catalan insults to the wave of cars, auto parts, olive oil and other Spanish wares headed to points far away, lifting the country out of the doldrums.

#Spain #Spanish economy #SEAT auto factory

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